THE CINEMA OF MOHAMAD MALAS (+ SCREEN TALK)
THE DREAM | THE MEMORY | QUNEITRA 74

friday 24 NOVEMBER | 18:30
curzon hoxton, 55 Pitfield St, London N1 6BU

The Dream
1987 | 45’

Shot in 1980-81, The Dream is composed of interviews with over 400 Palestinian refugees living in the camps of Sabra, Shatila, Bourj el-Barajneh, Ain al-Hilweh and Rashidieh in Lebanon. 

In 1982 the Sabra and Shatila massacres occurred, taking the lives of several people Malas interviewed; he stopped working on the project. He returned to it in 1986 and edited the many hours of footage gathered into this 45 minute film, released in 1987.

The Memory
1975 | 13’

An elderly woman lives on her own in the small town of Quneitra. She talks to her many cats and chickens, to the film team and to herself. She listens to the stories on the radio. She walks through the rubble.  

She remained in Quneitra when the Israeli army occupied the Golan Heights, and all through the war of 1973. When the occupation forces withdrew,  they destroyed the city to make it inhabitable. Few individuals returned. The woman says she used to write down things about the many things that happened. All is gone, what is left is only the memory.

Quneitra 74
1974 | 20’

A ceremonial gathering of the villagers of Quneitra on the Syrian Golan Heights after the Israeli army withdrew and returned the town inhabitable. 

The press takes photographs of the rubble. One woman starts running in the streets between the ruins, always making sure the audience does not leave her alone, contacting us through the camera. She strolls through the streets and alleys of her hometown, enters a house, cleans the shards of a window. A little girl appears, an old woman with her hens. Three females of three generations connected in solitude.

This session is followed by a Q&A with Nezar Andary, filmmaker, author and scholar. Andary's award-winning Unlocking Doors of Cinema (2019) explores the fifty years of artistic contribution of the daring Syrian auteur Mohamad Malas.